The J.D. MacLean Centre for Tropical Diseases at McGill University is a world-renowned centre of expertise, research, and training in Clinical Tropical Medicine, including neglected tropical diseases, and is the largest of its kind in North America. The Centre includes the Tropical Disease Clinic, the Pre-Travel clinic, the Clinical Parasitology section of the Department of Microbiology, and the National Reference Centre for Parasitology. It brings together 11 physicians, 2 PhD scientists, 2 Travel-Health Nurses, and highly specialised technologists.

Core activities include medical care for travelers, immigrants, and refugees, with particular expertise in imported and parasitic infections. The Centre also provides care for Canadians with locally acquired endoparasitic and ectoparasitic disease, or exposure to imported pathogens. The team provides comprehensive pre-travel health assessment and medical advice, and is part of the global GeoSentinel and CanTravNet networks for surveillance of imported infections.

The Centre provides training for health care professionals at all levels, and delivers reference laboratory services in clinical parasitology. Investigators at the Centre are active in several areas, including clinical parasitology, parasite diagnostics, parasite epidemiology, vaccine immunology, as well as cold-climate parasitoses and circumpolar health.